Wednesday, August 31, 2011

My kitchen is pretty bare. I have a lot of counters and with the exception of dirty dishing, a toaster, and a knife block there is not much on there. So I kinda thought it might be nice to have a few cute things out. You know, make it look more homey. I would have said more lived in, but the constant flow of dirty dishes makes it pretty clear that people (or a bunch of wild animals) live here. (I guess wild animal wouldn't use dishes, so it is probably the food on the floor that would lead you to believe wild animals live here.) Anyway, as part of my want to make my kitchen cuter I decorated myself a few canisters.

But, I didn't go with the standard labels. Instead I made these cute little labels. I decided that I (or anyone else who would be using these ingredients) would know what they are so I didn't really need to put sugar on the front. Right? We all can tell the difference between sugar and pasta...

Here is the logic behind the labels. I labeled the wheat with peace because in Relief Society the emergency preparedness person said that if you only had wheat in your food storage and you know what to do with it you family could live off of just that and be perfectly healthy. You may not enjoy it, but you could live forever on wheat. So in my mind, knowing I have wheat gives me Peace. (I am currently working on learning all the things I can do with it, so far I know it looks cute in a jar.) For the pasta I did Love because usually when you take a neighbor or someone a meal there is pasta involved. And taking someone who needs it a meal is charity and charity is the pure Love of Christ. Alright, so sugar is Hope, because Hope it sweet. (Apparently I am running low on hope. I will have to remember to buy more at the store with the kids tomorrow.) And I decided I needed a cute little jar with brown sugar and I labeled it Joy because anything made with brown sugar in it gives me Joy.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

so if you live in Utah make sure you set your DVR so you can watch it (it starts at 11am). If you don't live in Utah, no worries I will be sure to figure out how to put a clip on here (even if it means I have to make my husband do it, and it probably does.)
Also I want to bring up a few things that I am rather excited about. First, I am finishing up a quick little project that I kinda think it pretty cute tonight and should be able to share it with all of you tomorrow. Second I am starting a VERY cool giveaway on Thursday (it will have 3 lucky winners). And third, you may remember my poor poor front room. You know the one that sucks so much that is almost won a makeover. Well, I am starting the process of making it pretty. And I think you are going to like it. Or at least I will so that is all that matters. Right now I am just in the planning/hoarding stages to creating, but it will all come together and I am sure there will be fun projects along the way. I got some fabric for it tonight. Here is a little sneek peek. Lets see if you can see where I am going with this.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

I think like most moms I approached the kids going back to school with excitement and fear. The big scary what if that comes with sending your little ones out into the world. The realization that 30 hours of every week your babies are living a life that has nothing to with you. For the first time in a long time, this school year it will be just me and my baby home alone together 6 hours every week. CRAZY. Emma will be in 2nd grade, Alan will be in kindergarten and my little Logan will be going to preschool 3 days a week.

First I took my Emma girl off to school.

Then I came home and got my Alan boy ready to go to Kindergarten. Of course the other boys had to get in on the action.

All day I kept watching the clock and hoping not to hear the phone ring. Finally the time came, and when I went to get my little girl she was all smiles.

Success!!

So after seeing this post about back to school teacher gifts I knew I just had to make little gifts for this kids to take their teachers on the first day of school.

So here is what I came up with.

The original post gives a great tutorial on how to make the chocolate covered oreo pops, but she used a candy mold and I didn't have a candy mold, so here is how I did it without a candy mold.

First you have to stick the lollipop sticks in the cookies. To make sure they stuck to the stick really well, I opened each cookie and dripped a little chocolate in there to "glue" it all together. Once they were cooled I dipped each cookie in the red chocolate and placed it on wax paper.

Before it dried very much I moved it so there wasn't a lot of left over pooling on one side of the cookie.

Then, once again, before they were all the way dry I stuck a little piece of pretzel in the top and added a leaf using green fondant (because I already had some on hand. You could also use a fruit roll up.). Then I just suck them in the little bags.

I got the little buckets at the dollar store and filled them with things teachers need.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

I realize I may have been a little bit crazy to throw two parties for my kids in one day at my house, but they went so well and I am really glad I did it. I was talking to my mom and she asked "now why are you having parties?" And I was all like "because the kids are going back to school." Like that truly was a valid, non-silly reason to have a party.

So the first party of the day was our Wet and Wild Popsicle party. It was a blast and amazingly inexpensive (two things I always enjoy in a party).

Okay, so for this party we had 14 kids, 40 popsicles, 24 bottles of water, 1 kiddie pool, 1 bounce house water slide, and 1 bubble machine, and about 250 water balloons. In total is cost less than $20 (because I was able to borrow the bounce house waterside from a friend.) I was also planing on setting up a Slip n' Slide (or as Logan would say "a blip and blide"), but I didn't get it out before the kids got there.

The kids loved the bounce house, but honestly the real hit of the party was all the water balloons. Even if you can't get a hold of a bounce house, just make sure you have a TON of water balloons and the kids will think you are amazing. I bought 250 and was very surprised at how quickly they went through them all. They really loved the long skinny ones, I should have done more of those. I got most the balloons from the Target dollar spot.

I also had a bubble machine going the whole time. Months ago, I got the boys those Crayola colored bubbles. Never Never Ever buy those. I hadn't heard anything about them way back then, and so I bought them thinking "oh tinted bubbles fun." No that is not the case. They are actually paint with a little bubble solution in it and they do stain almost anything they touch. For the party I diluted the colored bubbles with a ton of normal bubble (like 1:4) and put them in the bubble machine. They still turned everything they touched green. It came off the kids and their suits fine, but it did still stain the concrete.

This is the face Emma made when I told her she was turning green. She didn't think it was funny. But they did all have a lot of fun playing in the bubbles.

and did I mention that 14 kids ate 40 popsicles so obviously everyone had a good time.

Once the popsicle party was over I had a few hours to get ready for Emma's Night Owl Ice Cream Party.

I was really excited to have this party. When the class lists came out for school I thought it would be really fun to have a party for all the girls in the class to get to know each other before school started. Tracking everyone down was a little hard, but I managed to get a invite to every girl in the class.

I had the girls come in their pjs and bring a sundae topping to share.

When the girls got there the bounce house was still out, so I let them play on it from a while, while everyone arrived. I had moved the sofas in the family room close together and laid down a big blanket and had two very large bowls of popcorn waiting for the girls when they came in to start the movie.

About half way through the movie we took a little intermission and I had each girl introduce herself really quickly before we enjoyed some ice cream.

They were SHOCKED that I let them make their own sundaes with as much stuff on it as they wanted and eat as much as they wanted. If you are letting little girls do this, you may want to buy more that 3 cans of whip cream.

They really like whip cream.

When the movie was over we went back outside and lit a paper lantern I had left over from Emma's birthday party.

This picture is actually from Emma's birthday. I didn't take any pictures of the one from this party because I was alone with 12 seven year old girl flying something I lit on fire I didn't think it was a good idea to run an get the camera.

Since the parties I have have several of the kid's moms tell me what a good time they had. I am really glad, and it goes to show (or at least it shows me) that I don't have to go crazy from the kids to have a good time.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

I was wandering around pinterest and when I saw this cake I just had to share it with you. I really want to make one. The texture is just so wonderful. Why didn't I think this??? could you imagine this done on tall stacked tiers and just a really clean silver monogram on top at a wedding.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Oh I am so exhausted. but it is a good exhausted. We did two back to school parties at the house today. They were a lot of fun. And actually I was very proud of myself for keeping them so low key. Sometimes I think I go a little over the top and giving myself more work than I need too. I was slightly surprised at myself that I didn't make any cakes or cupcakes for these parties. But I decided that it wasn't necessary, and they are a lot of work. But I am super excited to share the parties with you tomorrow. Here is a little sneak peek.

Now for the features. I am going to keep this quick so I can go to bed. So take the time and go check out these posts. They are worth it.

I think this hutch is another great example of how sometimes if you just change one thing you change everything. I love this white hutch from forever decorating.

I love love love every little bit of this. Go to The 36th Avenue to look at all the great details.

I want a baby girl and I want to make her a little monogrammed onesie like this one from Taylor Made.

Okay. I am going to go get some very much earned rest.

Oh hey real quick. I have noticed a lot of really great comment and new followers. You all are awesome and seriously make day...week,..month. I feel like I have been so busy that I am still trying to get caught up. So sorry if I don't get back to you right away, but you all really do mean a lot to me. THANKS!

Me

Welcome to Corner House, where there is always a project in progress. Hi, my name is Laura. I am a happy wife and busy mother of 5. In my "spare time" I love to explore my creative side, everything from DIY home decor, to sewing, to baking, and just about everything in between.